Candida Gubbins

Dirk Dilly has scales and a tail, and can breathe fire. Obviously not the kind of detective you expect to find in London...

When Dilly gets a call from Holly asking him to help her find her missing cat, he thinks that the case will be very tedious. However, soon he and the intrepid Holly are engaged in a life or death struggle in which the missing cats play only a small part. This is a case that will seriously test Dilly's detective skills as he finds himself up against some very dangerous foes!

When Dirk Dilly of the Dragon Detective Agency is asked to follow a husband who is behaving suspiciously, he becomes involved in a mystery involving some very wicked Tree Dragons. Soon Holly is on hand to help Dirk and between them they find some solutions, not just the behaviour of the suspicious husband, but also to the problems that Holly has been having at school, where nothing is quite what it should be.

Milo, Mia and Birdy are so excited to return to the holiday cottage beside the Enchanted Wood for Christmas. They can't wait to visit their magical friends Silky the fairy and Moonface again. Which amazing worlds will arrive at the top of the Faraway Tree at this time of year? The children are hoping the Land of Presents might come by, or the Land of the Never-ending Christmas Dinner. But not all the Lands are full of good things and Milo, Mia and Birdy must help a friend in great need before they can celebrate the season truly happily.

The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton was Jacqueline Wilson's own favourite book as a young child. Now Britain's favourite contemporary children's author, creator of Hetty Feather and Tracy Beaker, is revisiting it in her second wonderful book about this magical world.

Left profoundly deaf after an accident, Émile is no stranger to isolation - or heartbreak. Now, as Nazi planes loom over Guernsey, he senses life is about to change forever.

Trapped in a tense, fearful marriage, Isabelle doesn't know what has become of Émile and the future she hoped for. But when she glimpses him from the window of the French House, their lives collide once more.

Leutnant Schreiber is more comfortable wielding a paintbrush than a pistol. But he has little choice in the role he is forced to play in the occupying forces - or in his own forbidden desires.

As their paths entwine, loyalties are blurred and dangerous secrets forged. But on an island under occupation, courage can have deadly consequences...

London, 1941. When Mary meets a glamorous stranger named Elizabeth she realises their lives couldn't be more different. Elizbeth is beautiful and charming, about to set off on a dazzling adventure to Ireland where she's inherited a grand house. Mary, shy and meek, has nothing to look forward to but the dreary life of a maid in Hampstead.

But when an air raid forces them to take shelter underground Mary's life is suddenly changed forever. After waking up in hospital, injured but alive, the nurse mistakes her for Elizabeth and hands over her suitcase with Elizabeth's money and tickets to Ireland inside.

This is Mary's chance to escape the hardship of her life and start afresh.

Will she take it and what could go wrong?

Aveline Jones loves reading ghost stories, so a dreary half-term becomes much more exciting when she discovers a spooky old book. Not only are the stories spine-tingling, but it once belonged to Primrose Penberthy... who vanished mysteriously, never to be seen again. Intrigued, Aveline decides to investigate Primrose's disappearance. But now someone - or something - is stirring. And it is looking for Aveline...

Book 1 in the Aveline Jones series.

Only a handful of people in the world have a truly perfect memory. Nicola is one of them. It's more of a curse than a blessing - every moment of sadness, embarrassment and unhappiness is burned into her mind forever - so she plays it down, and tries to live a quiet life. But a body has been found, a discovery that threatens to tear her community apart - and reopen old wounds from decades ago. Nicola was a child, but she remembers the night with perfect clarity. Despite that, she never discovered the truth of what happened. Now she must use her unique memory to solve the murder, or watch the man she loved be wrongly convicted of the crime...

Anna wants a fresh start after three long years behind bars.

Lucy craves the attention of the only man she can't have, her alluring Oxford professor.

Marie has spent too long as a recluse living by someone else's rules.

When three strangers stumble upon an elaborate web of lies and the dead body at the heart of it, they will discover the true price of getting the life they desire so badly. But will it be too late?

When aristocrat's daughter Charlotte Bingham was summoned to her father's office aged eighteen, she never expected to discover that he was a spy. Even more ominous was his decision that she should work for MI5. As fellow secretary Annabella illuminates the mysteries of MI5, and Lottie's home fills with actors doubling as spies, Lottie feels well and truly spooked. This hilarious memoir is a window into 1950s Britain, where debutantes are typists and where Englishness is both a nationality and a code of behaviour.

You never forget the one that got away. Daniel was the first boy to make Alison a mix tape. But that was years ago and Ali hasn't thought about him in a very long time. Even if she had, she might not have called him 'the one that got away'; after all, she'd been the one to run. Then Dan's name pops up on her phone, with a link to a song from their shared past. For two blissful minutes, Alison is no longer an adult in Adelaide with temperamental daughters; she is sixteen in Sheffield, dancing in her skin-tight jeans. She cannot help but respond in kind. And so begins a new mix tape. Ali and Dan exchange songs - some new, some old - across oceans and time zones, across a lifetime of different experiences, until one of them breaks the rules and sends a message that will change everything…

The bond between men and the gods is weakening. A dead man walks between the worlds and foresees Odin's doom. The only survivor of a slaughter unleashes a monster from fiery Muspelheim. Long hidden among mortals, a giantess sighs and takes up her magics once again. A chief 's son must overcome war and treason to become the leader his people need. And the final battle is coming...

K returns to Britain to attend the wedding of Claudia who he loved obsessively fourteen years ago, when she was a schoolgirl. Now Claudia faces a very different future and a past that cannot be easily banished.

A blistering sequel to Northern Wrath. The story continues...

Wolves howl. The trickster Loki breaks free from his chains. A demon is loose from Muspelheim.

In the battle to come, all shall die, but Ragnar will do anything to save his gods.

Einer scours the nine worlds for Hilda who walks among gods and goddesses, searching the truth of the Runes.

For centuries Siv has run from her past, but she knows that to protect her daughter, and Midgard, she will have to face her worst fears.

It is time to confront the Alfather.

Norse chiefs meet Christian kings on Midgard's battlefields, as Loki's army of the dead clashes with Odin's golden shields on Asgard. An ancient premonition of death hangs over all. Only two are free to choose their paths, to prevent the annihilation of the Nine Worlds: Ragnar, a storyteller who holds all fates in his hands, and Hilda, a warrior with no fate at all. Death, pain, and fear. 

It's 25 days until Christmas...

And 10-year-old Harper gets a surprise when Mum announces she's bringing her new boyfriend Nick home for the holidays!

Nick seems nice enough. But why do strange Christmassy things happen whenever he's around? Like snow falling only in the family's garden? Or a reindeer suddenly appearing on the roof?!

Harper's convinced that Nick must be Father Christmas! And if her mum and older brother won't believe her, she'll just have to find a way to prove it herself...